Warriors civic club of St Marks Public School, JP Nagar, took out an anti-litter walk near their school, early morning on 23rd December. Early morning walkers and joggers frequent the road for their daily shopping of fresh vegetables. Most of them do not carry their own bags, preferring to take home the veggies in thin flimsy plastic packets.

WARRIORS CIVIC CLUB of St Marks Public School, JP Nagar, took out an anti–litter walk near their school.
Pic: Ravikala P Baliga

52 members of the club, part of Childrens’ Movement for Civic Awareness (CMCA), made informative placards and charts and walked on the road. They were trying to tell residents to be civic-conscious, shouting slogans like ‘Say NO to plastics’, ‘Bring your own Bags’, ‘Save Environment’, etc.

People walking by looked thankful that they were not caught with plastic in their hands. People who took the plastic bags looked rather embarrassed! When the students requested them to bring their own bags henceforth, most of them said yes and apologised for not doing so. The students thanked those who were already carrying cloth bags.

The children met different kinds of people. One shopper said cloth bags are expensive and just shooed them off! He was not interested, when they showed eco-friendly bag from CMCA.

Another lady said, I have been using cloth bags since 1984 and don’t need your bag, thanks!

However nothing seemed to deter these enthusiastic kids. They also went around a small stretch inside the park where people were exercising and shouted slogans. They seemed interested and most of them stopped exercising, smiled and waved at the kids.⊕